Oceania (Pacific Islands)
Oceania as a Global Village, popularly known as the Pacific Islands or Oceanica, is not easy to define geographically because of the many far-reaching cultures and land masses that make up such a disconnected village. For our purposes, the islands of Australia and New Zealand are designated as the Austral-European Global Village and are excluded here. The map shows many of the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, which are all part of this ocean village. Click on the map to get a better view.
Oceania/South Pacific Islands
Islands have a mystique all their own as mythological places we associate with paradise. But in spite of their utopian reputation, real people live in this Global Village and conduct real life every day.
In Samoa dead ancestors are often buried in the front garden in order to protect property rights.
On other islands, according to Paul Theroux, an avid travel writer, in his Happy Isles of Oceania, some people worship sharks, and others put bones through their noses. He tells of places, “where women cook evening meals on the hot slopes of gurgling volcanoes.” (Theroux 1992)
Watch this short video of ten amazing things about the islands belonging to this Global Village.
Join me in the classroom to learn more about these islands that most of us associate with the word “paradise.”